Pigmentation of Cultured Striped Jack Reared on Diets Supple-mented with the Blue-Green Alga Spirulina maxima

Abstract

Pigmentation of cultured striped jack Caranx delicatissimus was attempted by feeding diets supplemented with a commercial spray-dried preparation of the blue-green alga Spirulina maxima which is abundant in zeaxanthin. The integumentary color of the fish reared on diets containing the alga at 5% or 10% became irridescent greenish gray at the back with a characteristic yellow band near the lateral line, whereas those reared on the control diet or frozen sardine exhibited dark gray. Analysis of the integuments revealed that contents of carotenoids were 0.28-1.50mg/100g at the dorsal part and 0.14-0.48mg/100g at the ventral one, being higher in the fish reared on the diets containing the alga. More than 95% of the carotenoids in the dorsal integuments were com-posed of three yellow ones, tunaxanthin, lutein, and zeaxanthin, and all of them increased by sup-plementation of S. maxima.